Oil demand has been rising rapidly and a host of industry heavyweights have in recent days estimated that it is back at around 100mn b/d for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic struck. Alarm bells are being rung that global spare capacity is shrinking as a result, with many key producers having been unable to invest sufficiently to offset natural declines let alone expand capacity.
Vitol CEO Russel Hardy told this week’s Reuters Commodities Trading Conference that he expects oil demand to exceed 2019 levels in the first quarter of 2022. This follows comments by BP CFO Murray Auchinloss on the firm’s Q3 earnings call last week that “demand is up above 100mn b/d. Again, we’re not back to pre-Covid levels [yet]. We think we’ll be there somewhere next year.” (CONTINUED - 958 WORDS)
